China
More protests in China
There have been further protests by workers in China as the economic crisis prompts attacks on conditions, jobs and pay.
On December 28th ground crew at Hong Kong's international airport walked out in a three-hour protest against cuts to announced bonus payments, grounding flights. The 1,000 workers were employed by Hong Kong Airport Services Ltd. The economic crisis was cited as the reason for the attampted clawbacks by company bosses.
1,000 workers stage sit-in in Chinese factory
Nearly 1,000 workers staged a rare sit-in protest outside a Shanghai factory Tuesday in the latest sign of strain in China's manufacturing industry, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis.
The workers were protesting because managers at the computer and telecoms equipment factory had failed to fully pay at least six months' worth of overtime, bonuses and benefits, one of the organizers said.
"I know the economy is bad now, but none of us can stand being badly treated by our employers," organizer Ding Xiaohua said.
Chinese factory workers riot
More unrest in China following further layoffs in the industrial heartland.
Over 500 rioted yesterday at a toy factory in Dongguan, on the Pearl River Delta in southern China, over pitiful severance payments handed out to 596 workers laid off this month.
Taxi drivers strike in central China
Thousands of taxi drivers took to the streets in the city of Chongqing earlier this week for improved conditions.
The strike, which began on Monday, saw 9,000 of Chongqing's taxis taken out of service as drivers protested over conditions; including high fees charged by their companies, unfair competition from unlicensed cabs, and a shortage of fuel.
Aufheben #16 (2008)
Aufheben Issue #16. Class conflicts in the transformation of China, The language of retreat: Paolo Virno’s A grammar of the multitude, Value struggle or class struggle?, Review: Forces of labour: Workers’ movements and globalisation since 1870 by Beverly J. Silver.
Available as printer-friendly pdf files listed below.
A battle for life
In 1958 the Communist Party of China had been in power for nearly a decade. This article is an example of the propaganda radicals such as the anarchist Ba Jin had to write in order to remain free, although he did not escape denunciation during the Cultural Revolution launched 8 years later.
Foreword
Nationalism and the road to happiness for the Chinese
This article by the Chinese anarchist writer Ba Jin was originally published in Awakening the People, No. 1, September 1921.
Chinese society is at the darkest stage now. Under such circumstances, young people become impotent and weak without the power to resist corruption. Even the brave ones can only keep quiet and submit to fate. When it is really unbearable, suicide is the only way out. China is paralyzed; where can we find happiness?
Workers riot in China
Migrant workers rioted for three days in a town in eastern China in a fresh sign of rumbling social unrest running up to the Beijing Olympics.
The protests began on 10 July in Kanmen in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Workers - reportedly angered by a beating meted out to a colleague - attacked a police station for three successive nights.
Riots in Weng'an County, southwest China, 30th June 2008
10,000 people riot in a southwestern province of China after the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl by the deputy mayor's son is covered up by police. Protesters attacked police stations and government buildings.
Strikes and protests in China
Bus drivers have been on strike, while the death of a blogger prompted protests and a taxi drivers protest in Hubei proviince.
A protest against a landfill site which is expanding into urban areas in Tianmen, Hubei province led to violence as protestors were attacked by Chengguang (City Management Officers).
China: man killed for filming repression
Wei Wenhua (41), who was filming clashes between villagers and officials on his camera phone, died after a beating from the goverment officials.
Mr Wenhua was attacked on Monday in the village of Wanba, outside of Tianmen City in the central Hubei province. Villagers were protesting against the dumping of rubbish on a wasteland site by their homes by the city's refuse service, claiming it was polluting the air and local water supply.
The Chinese anarchist movement
A history of the Chinese anarchist movement in France, Japan and China itself from 1900 up to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party.
R. Scalapino and G.T. Yu.
Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, 1961
Contents
Editor's Note
Preface
The Origins of Chinese Anarchism
Anarchism and the Nationalist Revolution
The Work-Study Movement
The Anarchist Conflict With Marxism
Editor's Footnote
Editor’s Note
China: miners strike attacked
800 striking miners at the Tanjiashan Coal Mine in Hubei Province fought hired security guards for two hours last week after they attempted to break a six day strike.
Radio Free Asia reported that the security guards set about the workers and in the ensuing clash at least one worker and one security guard died. The conflict lasted about two hours, during which time the workers vented their anger by attacking company offices and two nearby police vehicles they believed had been used to transport management's hired security guards to the mine.
Ba Jin obituary - The Guardian
Obituary in the Guardian of Chinese author and anarchist Ba Jin, on Tuesday October 18, 2005 by John Gittings
Ba Jin:Chinese writer who made the journey from anarchism to Mao and back again
The Meaning of Tiananmen
Burt Green analyses the events of Tiananmen Square and their consequences.
The Meaning of Tiananmen
"It's anarchy, but it's organized anarchy."
- Dan Rather, reporting from Tiananmen Square in late May/early June 1989
China: Riots in Chongqing after death of a schoolboy
Rioting broke out in Chonqing after it was reported that the child's parents had been arrested.
The secondary school pupil died last Thursday after being stabbed by another pupil. 10000 people took to the streets to protest after it was reported that the parents had been arrested after having complained about delays in calling for an ambulance.
China: Workers in Guangdong attacked for asking to be paid
Construction workers building a dam near Heyuan, were attacked after demanding payment, having gone four months without wages.
Some 300-400 workers at the site, currently building a hydro-electric power station, went on strike last Friday in protest at the massive wage arrears. Some 200 hired thugs then attacked the workers. Lei Mingzhong, is reported to be in a coma and brain dead and acccording to doctors has no chance of recovery. Many other workers were injured in the clashes.
China: Slave labour in brick kilns
At least 600 people have been freed by authorities from slave labour working in brick kilns in northern China.
The government acted to move against the use of slave labour in Shanxi and Henan provinces, freeing 600 people, 10% of whom were children. However government action appears, at least in part, to be motivated by workers action. A blog set up by parents in Henan reports having freed 40 children from slave labour using direct action.
The state and counter-revolution - Negation
A 1972 article by Negation, in the United States debunking the myths of Leninism and the New Left in particular.
They confront the fact that state-capitalism, the state-management of production and society, the rule over society by the class of the state, the bureaucracy, is still almost universally confused with "communism" as Marx defined it, due in part to the conspiracy of silence and distortion which unites the capitalists of both "East" and "West".
Bureaucrats - Simon Leys
Despite the claims of the Maoist ruling elite of a complete break with feudal ways, Leys illustrates that the finely graded hierarchies of Maoist officialdom inherited and preserved the earlier bureaucratic structures of privilege.
Simon Leys is the pen-name of Pierre Ryckmans; he has written extensively on the history, culture and politics of China.
From; Chinese Shadows, Simon Leys; Penguin Books, London, 1978.
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Bureaucrats
(Simon Leys)
